Re: [Automake-NG] [PATCH 02/15] [ng] vars: get rid of VAR_SORTED type

[Akim Demaille]

Le 25 mai 2012 à 15:27, Stefano Lattarini a écrit :

> This is a good point; in the present case, however:
> 
>  - the testsuite continued to pass after my change, so I assumed
>    everything was OK; if not, that's a weakness in the testsuite
>    that should be fixed

An empty diff seems to be a stronger form of equivalence than
a passed test suite :)

>  - VAR_SORTED was only used to ensure the $(RECURSIVE_TARGETS)
>    variable was sorted;

OK.

> if we truly need it to be, we should
>    use $(sort) to ensure that at runtime.

That misses the point.

>> This makes the use of simple tools such as diff possible.  This is
>> a useful ally during overhauls that affect the order in which
>> things are discovered.
>> 
> I'm not sure I follow here...  You mean we should keep extra complications
> in Automake to cater to those people still keeping the autotools-generated
> files committed in their VCS repos?

Nope, I'm talking about diffing the output of two different
Automakes, when hacking automake itself.

Which is your duty now, so if you're happy with this, just
continue!  But expect to find code which is "aesthetics"
which is there only to make it easier to check the output
by hand.